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“That was amazing,” he said finally, wincing at his own lack of imagination.
“That sums it up, I’d say.” She rubbed her nose against his shoulder and he managed to move slightly so that he wasn’t crushing her.
He lay with her in his arms, feeling a wave of satisfaction and warmth roll across his body. He was drowsy, sated, and absurdly content. Wondering just how long he could go on like this.
“When Carol comes back…” he mumbled.
“When she comes back?” Ruth sounded almost as drowsy as he did.
“Can we keep going out? You can get a sitter to stay with her, right?”
Ruth nodded. “Sure. Like I said, I know a couple of girls who can stay until midnight or so.”
“Good.” He relaxed again against the pillow. “I mean, I’ve got this crazy schedule right now, but we can find a way to work around it.”
“Sure.” She sounded even drowsier. He had a feeling she wasn’t listening anymore.
“Because here’s the thing, Ruth. I want to go on seeing you. I need to go on seeing you.” He took a deep breath. Do it. “I’ve got a job offer from out of town. I have to move to Park City to take it. But when I do, I’ll come back to see Bec. And I want to see you, too.”
“Okay,” she murmured drowsily. “We can figure it all out later.” He glanced down. Her eyes were closed, her lashes like silk against her cheek.
Had she heard? He wasn’t sure. But at least he’d said it. At least he’d tried to make a beginning. Maybe there’s more going on for you in Antero than you thought about before. More than the brewery or the tavern.
Or maybe it was time to go to sleep. Now that was something he could get behind.
Chapter Seventeen
Peaches was working on her coffee cake when Ruth and Liam arrived the next morning, which meant lots of samples to analyze. Liam seemed perfectly happy to concentrate on his coffee and some peach-adorned crumb cake without talking. But then, he’d talked a lot last night.
I want to go on seeing you. I need to go on seeing you.
How on earth was Ruth supposed to react to that? Better to just pretend to be asleep. And what to say about the fact that he was leaving? She wasn’t even sure she’d heard him right. Was there anything she could say, anything she had a right to say? They weren’t in a committed relationship, after all. She’d known he was looking for something beyond Antero. She just hadn’t known he was going so far so soon.
It doesn’t matter. You never figured on this being anything more than a fling.
Right. Of course, she didn’t exactly feel that way anymore.
There were so many obstacles already in place. She was the mother of a twelve-year-old. Both of them were consumed by their jobs. With David in town, she couldn’t even think beyond her present right now.
But you’d like to, wouldn’t you?
Yes, all right, she’d like to go on seeing Liam. She’d like to spend a lot more time with him, given her choice. But choice was a luxury right then. He was leaving, and she had a business to run. She didn’t have many varieties of choice available.
And she knew from experience that making important choices when you thought you might be in love was a bad idea. Once upon a time, she’d thought marrying an actor and moving to California was a reasonable idea. She’d found out soon enough her hormones were lousy judges of reasonable.
It’s just sex, Ruth. Just sex. You went into it knowing it was just a fling.
But she didn’t believe that anymore. Something beyond sex was happening between them. She just wasn’t sure that was a good idea, no matter how much she wanted to believe that it might be.
She wasn’t going to get hurt again. She was determined on that point at least.
After a while, Liam seemed to have drunk enough coffee to be coherent. “When are you going to pick up Carol?”
“After the lunch rush. Until then I need to be around here to help Peaches and try to get some cheese finished.”
“Did Brett tell her about her father being here?”
“I asked him not to. I don’t want to get into the whole trip-to-California discussion until I’ve had time to think about it a little more. And as soon as she hears that David’s here, that’s the first thing she’ll ask about.”
